An unusual approach to the creepiest of crawlies, likely to snare unwary passers-by in droves.
For their latest memorable venture into microscopic worlds, two veteran collaborators bring children face to face with the original “web masters” (Bug Shots, 2011, etc.).
“To know a spider you must first look into its eyes.” Along with being a proposition as riveting as it is uninviting for most readers, Siy’s observation is literally true, as the arrangement of their multiple eyes is often a key to spider identification. Expanding on her taxonomic topic, the author focuses on observable behaviors and physical characteristics throughout a general overview and brief introductions to 10 arachnids. She closes with specific methodology that includes both a chart of eye patterns and a set of systematic questions that will help distinguish true spiders from close relatives. As always, Kunkel’s bright, sharp, close-up photographs and even closer-up electron micrographs, all with detailed production notes, are a highlight—the former artfully angled to show body parts and coloration, the latter using false colors to make spinnerets and other tiny physical features easily visible. Though the author’s argument that spiders are our friends (in support of which she even enlists E.B. White’s Charlotte) is vitiated by frequent images and mentions of black widows, brown recluses, some Australian spiders, and how seldom anyone actually dies from venomous bites, the mixed message will still draw both budding naturalists and readers after cheap thrills in equal numbers.
An unusual approach to the creepiest of crawlies, likely to snare unwary passers-by in droves. (index, multimedia resource lists, glossary) (Nonfiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2871-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme.
An age-old rivalry is reluctantly put aside when two young vacationers are lost in the wilderness.
Anthropomorphic—in body if definitely not behavior—Dogg Scout Oscar and pampered Molly Hissleton stray from their separate camps, meet by chance in a trackless magic forest, and almost immediately recognize that their only chance of survival, distasteful as the notion may be, lies in calling a truce. Patterson and Grabenstein really work the notion here that cooperation is better than prejudice founded on ignorance and habit, interspersing explicit exchanges on the topic while casting the squabbling pair with complementary abilities that come out as they face challenges ranging from finding food to escaping such predators as a mountain lion and a pack of vicious “weaselboars.” By the time they cross a wide river (on a raft steered by “Old Jim,” an otter whose homespun utterances are generally cribbed from Mark Twain—an uneasy reference) back to civilization, the two are BFFs. But can that friendship survive the return, with all the social and familial pressures to resume the old enmity? A climactic cage-match–style confrontation before a worked-up multispecies audience provides the answer. In the illustrations (not seen in finished form) López plops wide-eyed animal heads atop clothed, more or less human forms and adds dialogue balloons for punchlines.
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-41156-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
"The short, sad life of Tooley Graham was over," doesn't sound like a happy conclusion but is pitch perfect in this short, simple and endearing middle-grade novel that follows on the heels of The Small Adeventure of Popeye and Elvis (2009). Owen Jester is focused on several things during his summer vacation: finding a way to keep his trapped "pet" bullfrog alive and happy, locating what fell off a train with a loud crash! one night and keeping annoying next-door neighbor Viola—who knows everything—out of their business as he schemes with his two best friends, Stumpy and Travis. The discovery of a sleek, red two-person submarine in the brush alongside the tracks changes everything. Can three young, girl-hating boys and a willing and very able—and tolerant—girl move a submarine to Graham Pond? If they manage that, will they ever be able to pilot it? In the heat of a languid Georgia summer vacation, in the dreams of irrepressible youth, anything is possible. O'Connor has spun a lovely read that perfectly captures the schemes and plans of school-age kids in the long days of summer. (Fiction. 8-11)
Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-374-36850-0
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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